Bio

Sami is a kurdish filmmaker from Turkey. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, he directed The Box of Lanzo, a feature documentary, 100 mn, about homeless poeple. The film traveled in many festivals as the Flint film festival in U.S and Human Rights Films Festival in Scotland. He also directed a short film called Sortie, winner of campus arts short films competition and codirected The passenger that is in postproduction. Sami was co-writer and assistant director of Ax (the land), winner of several prices and best film in Hamburg film festival (Germany, 2000).
Sami worked as a director of photography on several films, as Taxi Casablanca, a documentary about the only woman who drives the white taxi in Casablanca Morocco, codirected by Hind Benchekroun and Mary Fowles and that was broadcasted on TV5. He also shot The concert of the voices of Bettina Ehrardt, a documentary on Kent Nagano. Sami was also an assistant cameraman of the D.O.P Philippe Lavalette on the movie Victoria directed by Anna Karina.

Works

Xalko

  • 2018
  • Sami Mermer, Hind Benchekroun

This film looks at Xalko, a kurdish village in Turkey, threatened by exodus. Deserted by its men who have gone to Europe or America, Xalko still survives thanks to those who keep the fort: mothers and children who do what it takes to keep it alive. It looks at migration from those left behind.

A group of people in a dusty field standing and holding hands in a semi circle

Turtles Do Not Die of Old Age

  • 2010
  • Hind Benchekroun, Sami Mermer

This film celebrates longevity by introducing us to three colorful characters living in Morocco.

Photo of Turtles do not die of old age